Friday, January 17, 2014

After 2 hours of sleep, a walk and bus ride, a 30 minute
wander around Victoria station at 3 AM trying to find the 1.5 hour bus to
Stansted Airport, a 2 hour wait and 3 hour flight, I arrive at Lisbon airport and wait for Sharlene.
Trust me, I’ve had much worse transfers. Shar and I have reunited in Prague, Cuzco, Copenhagen, Casablanca and now Lisbon. We see each other without a hitch, stash
our bags at the bus station and are off to explore! Visit Sharlene's blog for more pics.

Day 12: Lisboa! Portugal I adore

After lunch, our first stop is the much anticipated Pais de Nata (egg custard
tart) at Pais de Belem. It is no surprise that food (and pastries, nonetheless)
is first on our to-do list.

Belem: All hail to the pais de nata in the box above

Pasteis de nata: YUM!

We meander the streets of Lisbon in the Baixa-Chiado hood.
Very hilly. Working off those pais de natas.

Tram 28

Convento de Carmo

When I read ruins, I was on it!

Street art:

Winding through non-touristy deserted
backroads at night

So we booked two overnight buses from Lisbon to Seville and
back. This was the worst overnight bus of all my travels (and I have done a
lot)! We just won’t talk about it. Oh the dreaded return.

SPAIN AT LAST!

I finally made it! Madrid? No. Barcelona? No. Shar has
already done all of those and I will eventually, so we hit up Andalucia.

Day 13: Seville

We arrive at 7 AM to a dark, deserted Seville after the
night-bus-to-not-be-mentioned, and yet we still got a good impression on our 30
minute chilly walk into town. The happiest moment of this entire leg occurred
when we were allowed an early check-in to our room at 7:30 AM. Yes! We showered and
crashed until 11:30 AM.

There are two things on the must-see in Seville: Cathedral
(check) and Alcazar. We got shut out of Alcazar (supposedly like heaven) the day before because of
confusion over closing time (darn winter hours). How can we be shut out of heaven? But fear not, we finagle our way in.

Alcazar: Patio of the Maidens

we were the first into “heaven” at 9:30 the
first out at 10:15 AM.

It felt like we had 2 nights and 2 days in Seville due to
our crazy early morning dark arrival, but it was 28 hours.We dash to the bus station and are off to
town #2.

Town #2: Ronda
First stop after tapas ….

Bull Fighting!

OK, this set-up is not entirely accurate. The cape is
hiding behind Sharlene. I’m sure that is the only thing wrong.

Picturesque Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) above the Gorge

We only had 4 short hours in the town. We longingly wish we had
more time to hike down to the gorge, but instead we fled on train (and also the
Korean tourists).

Shar on the Renfe Train

With chocolate croissant (#4 out of 8 on this trip).

We oh so enjoyed these trains, especially after the horror
of the first bus. Train rides always included delicious pastries.

On this train, the conductor asked something about my
camera. Eh? Am I in trouble? After many illegal maneuvers as a poor
student on Euro trains, I still fear conductors. He checks my camera then shows us a ton of photos on his phone. Sure… as long as you don’t kick us out of our seats or the train!

Town #3: Antequera, our fave

Shar and I like to get off the beaten path. With limited
time, we chose wild-card Antequera. We walk 30 minutes
uphill (why does it always seem uphill?) to the main square, check into our Hotel San Sebastian and
are enthralled by this town.

Room
with a view:

again spoiled with
overlooking-main-square views

In Espanol, I conversed with the owners to secure shown
balcony room above. The owners said it might be noisy. When? 7:30AM, but no more
jackhammers. Great conversations.

We hit up tapas at the appropriate hour (9:45-11pm) at our
all-time favorite Tapas joint, Rincon de Lola. The owner was super nice and
explained in detail and pride all the daily specials.We'll take them all!

Side note: Tapas, tapas, tapas!

We really enjoyed these small plates of deliciousness. Here, we were inspired to make a list of

The next morning we sleep in because the tourist office may
open around 9, or 9:30 (mas o menos) because that’s how they roll here. After a
lengthy convo in Espanol, we convince the lady that we do want to go to the
national park. Yes, even though it is gray and rainy and we can’t see anything. Yes, we are crazy.

After our first and most delicious café and te con leche
with traditional bread, sweet tomato jam and olive oil, we are off.

And
amarillo we go! We had no idea where we were. Every time we
turned the corner we saw another gorgeous valley … but no parking lot.
Oops. Yeah, we were an hour late meeting our cabbie. Fortunately
nothing a few extra euro can’t solve.

We asked the cabbie to drop us off at the Dolmens below just south of town. There was a lovely visitor center, yet really no
visitors. An interesting site and reminder of the history of Antequera.

Dolmens de Viera: Burial Chambers from 2500 BC.

We walk back to town, eat at Lola again, wash the mud off jeans and begin to siesta… except I double check the hours for the
Alcazaba (fort) and lo and behold it’s closing in one hour! Darn winter hours.
No siesta. GO GO GO!!!

View of Alcazaba (fort)

Antequera is nestled in the hills

We convinced the guy that we can zoom through in one hour
(hmm, we seem to have to convince a lot of people in this town). We listen to the audio, walk and snap photos all at once.
Multi-tasking!

Random bull fountain spitting water out of his snout

View of Antequera from Alcazaba

It’s one of the many white-towns in Andalucia. It's an
archaeological gem.

Antequera was definitely our fave part of the trip, but, as much as we love it, Shar and I want to see
something new (yeah, we have issues staying still and chilling). Where to go tomorrow? We desperately want to see the elusive Alhama de Granada but
unfortunately can’t find reasonable buses or car as
neither of us can drive manual (dang it! Note: put on the to-do list).

All buses seem to lead to the port city of Malaga, so
there we go!

Day 16: Antequera to Malaga to Granada (another 3 town day)

Malaga: port-side city

Eh? How do these lockers work?

Travel note: we did a lot of pass through
towns and did many baggage storages in stations. We put coins in and
prayed that the locker didn’t spontaneously open (which it did once).
Miraculously, we never loss anything!

It was slated to be rainy, and rain it did, so we didn’t mind going to Malaga where
we hibernated in the Picasso and Thyssen museum.

Random cathedral #? in the old town of Malaga

This was not THE cathedral to use as the landmark. We got
somewhat lost in these streets (where are the signs?) but found our fave Danish Tiger store in route.

Girl at the Thyssen Museum of Impressionism.

Throw a backpack on her and it’s totally my style, right?

We found the Picasso Museum and Picasso birth house, then
headed back to the bus station. Malaga was all right. It was no cute small town
we dreamed of, but based on the transportation/rain situation, it did just
fine.

Off to the finale, Granada!We arrive just in time to madly head up for sunset at 6:21pm for the money shot ...

Alahambra at sunset from the St. Nicolas Mirador

We
treat ourselves to a fantastic Moroccan meal reminiscent of our travels
there. There is a lot of Moroccan influence in Granada which is
probably why
Shar and I liked it a lot (better than Seville).

Day 17: Granada with Moroccan hints

We rise early (OK, not that early but at 7:30 before
sunrise) to hike up to the ...

Alahambra! One place not to miss.

Now we’ve seen many similar things, but I have to admit, the Alhambra is pretty impressive! Definitely go.

Last tapa madness with locals at Bodegas Castena

Cheers with Cruzcampo!

Yes, that is me with beer. What?! It was light and
cheaper than water so I had to give it a go… several times.

En route, we stop in Seville for food at Vineria San
Telmo, which my parents raved about, before our dreaded 11:30 pm night
bus back to Lisbon.
Sadness.

Day 18: Lisboa take 2!

We
arrive at 5:30 am to a deserted bus station in Lisbon. With no public
transport
in sight, we hop into a cab to our Hotel Chiado. Best 10 euros spent! We
are happy campers to get into our hotel early. Routine: shower, 2 hour
nap and go for our (final) day.

Suddenly we had a ton to do in Lisbon despite our first chill day here.

National Tile Museum (fantastic!)

Lisbon has a lot of intricate azules (blue and white
tilework).

Sintra: National Palace

A nice simple palace in pleasant green suburbs

We also hit up the Contemporary Berardo Museum.

Lisbon Metro

Nice warning sign. Didn’t happen here, but I was a victim in NYC

Reunion with Joe

Grad school classmates. Pic from 12 years ago?

I forgot to take a pic of us so here's an oldie but goodie. Joe
moved to
Lisbon 6 yrs ago to head up his own lab. He invited us over for dinner
with his fiancé, Julia, her parents from Brazil
and her friend from Turkey. Good company and catching up. Always nice to
be
invited into the home of locals and meet people from all over. Perfect
end to our Lisbon day. And then we stay up to 3 am to sadly see the
Niners lose. Boo.

A great city. Goodbye Lisbon!

Shar and me at Alahambra

This third leg of the trip was awesome!
Portugal and Spain did not disappoint! It was a go-go-go 7 days
because that’s how we roll. We saw a ton of things. Weather was
off-and-on cooperative. Not terribly
cold (40-50’s) and a bit rainy - a nice break from constant 75 deg LA.
On the plus side, it’s off-season so we often got places to ourselves
and the best rooms in the house. It was a luxury to splurge on hotels
(no hostels!), which was doable since
Spain is relatively inexpensive for Europe. What an upgrade from our
backpacking days of 2000. Yes, we still have our backpacks, but we also
have
our own showers! Thanks for fun times once again, Sharlene!

It
was a fantastic Europe trip! Pretty much no-hassle, convenient travel.
It's incredible to understand the language everywhere (except Lisbon).
Only a few crazy nights. I didn't get in trouble with authorities or get
stuck in sketch situations. I saw tons of castles, forts,
cathedrals and alcaza-things. I rode lots of trains, buses and a few
planes. Of
course, there ended up not being as much down time as anticipated
because it’s
me. Even though I had internet and checked work e-mail daily, it was
still a
great, much-needed break from work and life in LA.

The
Europe-trip-that-never-was in 2000 has now been done. It was all I hoped
for.
Now, as always, I am sad to be back in the states. It went by way too
fast and the wanderlust that I am can always travel longer.
Perhaps next time I can really go off-the-grid again. Where to … ?